During my visits to North and Mid Wales I owned two cars.

To begin with I owned a Black MKI Ford Escort. On reflection, the car done incredibly well, considering the mileage I was accumulating and the wear and tear the car was enduring with all the traveling.

Eventually; I changed the car for a White MKII Ford Escort Harrier. This was a limited edition car as only fifteen hundred were made. I owned a Diamond White model, the other colour available was Strato Silver.

After a few years the Escort Harrier began showing signs of wear and tear, so towards the end of my visits I began hiring cars out.

I was fortunate in that where I working in Chelmsford there was a Ford Dealership not too far away, and it was also what was known as an RS Dealership, which meant they rented what was then, the Ford Escort XR3i. Therefore; on a few of my visits to Rhayader I would rent an XR3i.

I never took the XR3i to Beddgelert. This was for a few reasons, one of which; was I got to know Louise and her family from Rhayader, and this resulted in being offered a secure place to park the car overnight. I didn’t have this facility in Beddgelert. Also; Rhayader took less time to reach compared to Beddgelert.

So… ...  back to the beginning.

I didn’t rate this much, for the simple reason… I thought it looked a bit tacky and common.

As I had once contemplated trying to get into the then BT, which was then known as British Telecom, I decided to use that as a name instead.

These weren’t available as such, and the nearest was what some of the BT vans had which was Team Telecom.

Even back in those days I had a certain amount of creativity, and in Brentwood there was as a Car Spares shop, which also sold customizing materials etc.

I therefore brought a sun strip, and then had to buy all the relevant letters which had a sticky back and you peeled off the backing paper. I purchased all the letters to make up the words, ‘British Telecom’, as I didn’t rate the word Team Telecom. The BT vans also had the symbols ‘. \ . \ . \ . \ .’ after the word Telecom, so I also had to figure that out a way of creating that.

This actually involved quite some doing on my part, as first I had to cut the sin strip to the size of the top of the inside of the front windscreen, which back then was a MKI Ford Escort. I then had to arrange all the letters so they fitted appropriately with the correct spacing between each letter and the words British Telecom, and it also had to be straight. I then had to figure out a way of creating the graphics after the words.

This took, if I remember, probably a whole weekend to put together. Then I had to attach it to the windscreen. As this was only achieved via the suction of the sun strip, this involved a lot of doing, as I had now added fourteen letters. I seem to remember it was somewhat involved in achieving, but somehow I did.

I also realize now on reflection this created some attention for the car, especially as I also had a large CB aerial on the roof of the car and had additionally put chrome center caps on the wheels along with alloy wheel nuts. The things one does… when they’re growing up in their twenties.

After a while… the car was eventually changed to what was known then, as a Ford Escort Harrier. It was a limited edition model to promote Fords wins in rallying and they only made 1500. One thousand in Diamond White and five hundred in Strato Silver.

The car also had certain features which were taken from the then Ford Escort RS 2000 Custom, which consisted of; a rear flexi rubber boot spoiler, Recaro sport seats with tennis racket, mesh style head restraints, all round tinted glass, and alloy road wheels. The car I brought also had a front spoiler which had been professionally fitted. My car was a Diamond White version.

This was the first car I had brought using a loan, and if I remember the car cost £3,200.

The only other addition I added to the car eventually, where what was then know as Hella high level rear brake lights, which fitted into the rear window. This was a relatively new thing back in the 1980s.

Some people opted for the lights which screwed into the rear parcel shelf. I however, opted for the proper, Hello brake lights which were more expensive and also were not straight forward to fit.

To make things even more complicated, I decided I wanted a set of brake lights at the top of the rear window, and also at the bottom. This, therefore; involved buying two lots of the kit.

The other issue was when this had all been wired up, the lights were the equivalent of fog lights, and this meant they had to be aligned so they wouldn’t blind the person behind.

Again, this took a lot of doing, as I would have to sit in another car in the driveway which was behind my car, and with my brake lights on, I would then have to go back and forth and keep adjusting the lights so they weren’t blinding. This felt as though it took forever, but eventually I got them at just the right angle.

The top lights where tilted slightly up and out, and the lower ones were tilted slightly down and out. They were still bright, which was the whole purpose, but they didn’t glare.

The idea behind these brake lights was if those behind were following rather close, these brake lights were obvious compared to the normal brake lights and I’m sure it avoided me being involved in accidents on more than one occasion.

Compared to the Escort Harrier, this was a very different car. The most obvious one being, it was fuel injection and not carburetor. It was also a lot quieter, and quicker, and being a rental car, it was brand new.

I rented from Ford on quite few occasions, and then; I discovered the rental company known as ‘Budget’ which was literally, outside the Royal Mail offices.

I was also to discover, the rental charge was slightly lower at Budget, compared to what Ford was charging, which was an interesting realization. Additionally; the XR3i from Budget, came with electric windows and other additions, which the Ford rental car wasn’t supplied with.

I included the Escort RS Cosworth, as it was always one of my dream cars.

The last ones were created in 1996, thus ending an era which was never to be repeated.

They’re still available for sale, and the exceptional concours ones are commanding prices of up to £100,000. Then of course…  there’s the insurance quote.

That may seem an incredible asking price for a car; but the Escort RS Cosworth Luxury wasn’t just a car, it was a one off piece of engineering, coupled with a luxury interior, which was capable of incredible speed and road holding, even back then.

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